BlowBye

Im very close to getting rid of my TPI, i just hate Fuel Injection, too much troubleshooting if one little problem goes bad. So i was thinking of going with carb, but id also like to either go with a Roots type blower or Nitrous. It is a 305, but built to handle decent amount of power. Compression is 9.5:1 with 88' vette alluminum heads. Anyone have any info or suggestions, that would be great.

baddest305

hey blowbye i know first hand what your talking about. my motor started life as a tpi set up. i bought all tpis parts, the big mouth intake, ported runners, larger throttle body, air foil, had chip burned and ran a 100 shot on it. ok so that was fun for a while running low 12's but i wanted more so a ran a 150 shot i could'nt get the car to run any faster w/ the 150 shot because of tuning issues so i waved the white flag and surrendered to the friggin tpi!! went to a carb set up and have been very happy since. wish i did it before spending all that cash on tpi parts. an intake for the tpi-$400.00 intake for a carb $200.00 and so on..everything was so expensive and tuning wasn't cheap either. but not anymore the carb set up is so basic, easy, and cheaper to run. as for performance wise the car ran 12.2 w/100 shot w/tpi i now run a 150 shot and have a best of 11.60 which should been broke the next trip to the track w/ the help of chromoly k-member and a-arms and new moser 9" w/411's i got nothing bad to say about the tpi except it's expensive but just not for me. good luck with your decison.

BlowBye

appreciate your reply. Was your TPI a 305 or 350? Reason im going crazy isnt cause of speed, but troubleshooting and fuel injection lol. I believe i found the source of the problem and if it dosent turn out to be the problem then i will get rid of the TPI and go Carb. I've never dealt with carb on 87+heads. I dont have nor want any emission intakes and so on. So if you could help me on certain intakes,carb, that would be great also. As of now a t-56 and 3.42 rear is sitting. The engine also has 88' Vette alluminum heads. thanx for any input.

baddest305

hey blowbye check out my screenname baddest305
if you need any help shoot me a pm.
click on the link in sig if your interested in my set up. good luck

87ROC

http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/carbswap.shtml
http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/carbswap.shtml

Those are two tech articles I used to do mine. There are a few options to go about doing it. What I did was replace the in tank pump with a tube. Put a Carter inline fuel pump right next to the tank before the factory fuel filter. Got a HEI distributor for 100 bucks from a zz3 of ebay, a performer RPM manifold for 100 bucks off ebay and a Q-jet for 30 bucks off ebay that had a fresh rebuild and has worked great for a year now.

Summit has HEI distributors from 150 and up, a regular performer can be had for around 50 bucks used.

Most of the wiring from the computer is on the passenger side coming from the ECM. The wires you need to keep come primarily from the harness from the driver side. You retain the coil 12 volt source and the tach wire. connect them to the HEI. The temp sensor and oil sending wire work fine without the computer. Only remove the wire for power to the in tank fuel pump from the three wire harness going to the fuel pump relay. You need the other two for the fuel gauge.

Like I said the way I did it is not the only way. You can use you existing in tank pump with a mallory 3 port fuel regulator. I would suggest a 3 port fuel regulator anyway to take advantage of the return line to reduce wear on the inline fuel pump.

I did it mostly for the ease of operation since I drive my car about 30 miles back and forth to work everyday. I need somehting I can trouble shoot quick and not spend a lot of money on chasing ghost. The extra power above 5000 rpm with my 270HR cam is a bonus.

Kevin91Z

Find someone with a carb thirdgen who wants to trade up, and swap pink slips. Dont hack up a good TPI car just because you dont want to or cant handle it. There are many people out there who would jump at the chance of owning a TPI thirdgen instead of the one they have.

87ROC

There is a difference between hacking and carefully replacing and saving all the parts. And some people just can't handle the expense:

Ported TPIS BigMouth Intake by Don Lorentzen
TPIS Large Tube Runners
GM 24lb/hour LT1 Fuel Injectors
Custom Prom by Me (have to buy the prom and equipment to burn
TPIS 52mm Throttlebody
TPIS Throttle Body Airfoil

Your setup is awesome. But damn expensive. All that expense just to do what a carb can do with metering jet or metering rod changes.

But that's just my opinion. And you know what opinions are like

Kevin91Z

Lets see, the intake and runners were $400 used, together.
The injecters were $50, used.
The PROM burning equipment and software was ~$200, new.
The throttle body and airfoil were $100, used.

I live in California and cant swap to a carb, but I wouldnt want to anymore. Even my dad, who grew up with carbs and raced with them, thinks EFI is the best thing. But like you said, some people just cant afford it, or cant figure it out. But I still say why hack up a good TPI car, when there are plenty of carb cars out there, and many people who would love to have a TPI car.

DarthIROC

I agree, I just went to carb but I didnt HACK anything up. I kept all the parts I didnt need to sell to someone who wanted to go TPI. The only thing I dont know what to do with is the wiring harness that hs all the injector wires and stuff still attached to it and just hanging there.

87ROC

I don't doubt that at all. EFI is great. If I had a LT1 or LS1 I would not even consider the swap.

These cars are more than just a TPI. Performance is much more than just the TPI. And we could argue all day about which one will outperform the other. But the point is taking it off doesn't mean it can't go back on, or that a LT1 intake can't go on, or that a stealth ram can't go on. And low budget people like me can't justify spending more on upgrading the TPI than we did on the shortblock. You did an outstanding job bargain hunting and still spent more than my rebuilt shortblock.

But you live in CA. There is no other route to take. You have way more things to consider than others do.

Sorry my first car was a warmed over 78 z28 and I will never be able to get over the sound of the secondaries coming to life. WAWAAAAAAAAAA.